The Room Review


  Sometimes I feel really lucky and come across a real gem.  The Room by Fireproof Games and Fireproof Studios is a few years old at this point but I think is still a very viable title. It is a short but sweet puzzle experience.

The Game:   

  The Room is a simple game that takes place in a dark room with only a spotlight illuminating a box in the middle of it.  You can scroll 360 degrees around the box and move above it and on the sides.  Your job is to search the nooks and crannies of this box trying to discover how to open it.  Sometimes it will be moving a loose piece, other times it will be solving a puzzle on the side of it, there are also some very interesting ones where you will where a special lens to see what you could not before.

  There is a small inventory that will hold items you obtain from the box and will need in a later puzzle.  By clicking on the item you can inspect it or manipulate it as needed.  You can drag the object from the inventory to the box when you need to use it.

  The box is full of mysteries but if you get stuck after an amount of time the game will give you the option to take a hint to help you progress.  Every move you make that is a solution will cause the game to auto-save so you can put the game down and pick up right where you left off.

My Thoughts:

  This is a game that I think many people have attempted to make but have not done in the effective way The Room has.  The game is pretty stimulating in how it asks you to problem solve in ever increasing unique ways the farther you get.  It will ask you to cast aside the laws of space because let's face it,  the shit that comes out of this box could never fit in the space required but the suspension of belief is easy.  The whole point of this game is the puzzles and they are engrossing enough.

  The atmosphere is dark and the ambient sounds of creaking and moans from the room keep the somber mood alive.  Each click or rolling of the gear cuts through the atmosphere and comes with the sense of accomplishment.  The box itself is enjoyable to look at and as you progress becomes even more visually appealing and mysterious.  All of its parts fit the atmosphere built around it. There is also an interesting story going on if you read the notes that are hidden in the box.

  The puzzles are pretty straightforward and avoid moon logic.  There were a few times where I missed a small detail and it took me way too long to find the solution.  Reading the text is super important, there isn't a lot so there is no reason to get impatient with it.

  The only issue I had was with the controls and honestly its because I was playing a PC port on a Surface Pro 4.  The game was made for mobile but it was definitely not optimized for this screen.  The touchscreen made it easy to circle around the box but there were times it felt it was just easier to do it with the mouse pad.  Especially when you had to drag an object from your inventory to the box to perform some action.

  This game was a lot of fun for me.  It's nice to find puzzle games that remind me of the old Myst series with a more modern spin.  It is satisfying and interesting gameplay.  It was only a few hours but also only cost a buck so it was well worth my time and money.  There is The Room 2 and I look forward to playing it.

TL;DR:

  The Room is a nice quick puzzle game that I played on the PC but is also available on the mobile market.  It's a well put together visually appealing experience that is worth the price tag.


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